Police say show of force was a `drill'; Occupy SF wary

Despite rumors and a big show of force around town Wednesday night, San Francisco police did not raid the Occupy SF camp, and instead claimed the mobilization was only a preparedness drill.

Rumors about a possible raid prompted thousands of protesters to gather at the camp by late Wednesday evening, many linking arms, to anxiously await busloads of police officers that had gathered at the police department's SWAT headquarters at 17th and DeHaro streets in San Francisco as well as Treasure Island.

The caravan moved out from Treasure Island about 2:40 a.m., but by 5 a.m. word spread that police had shut down their operations for the night and the barricades removed.

SFPD spokesman Carlos Manfredi said that the department wanted to be prepared given what had happened Tuesday night in Oakland, but he said it was more of a preparedness drill, not preparation for a raid on the camp. He said the department will continue to monitor conditions and compliance at the camp on a case-by-case basis to ensure public safety.

"We wanted to be ready to respond either to Oakland or San Francisco in case something happened here," he said. "Obviously what happened in Oakland, we have to be prepared."

On Thursday morning, Danny Lynch, 27, led police and health workers through the camp this morning to check for violations as they do every day.

"We had 2,000 people show up last night," Lynch said "Around 4:45 in the morning our liaison got a call from the police, they said we're not coming because there too many of you and not enough of us."

He added, "Within a few minutes, 200 people had left. Everyone went to bed or went home after that."

Despite the possibility that the camp could be raided at any moment, the mood overnight at the camp was upbeat, with people dancing, chanting and singing around several hundred tents. Some were chanting "Peaceful power!"

Another man walked by with a T-shirt emblazoned with the California state flag and a message that read, "We are Scott Olsen," showing support for the seriously injured 24-year-old Iraq War veteran struck in the head by a tear-gas canister when police clashed with Occupy Oakland protesters in downtown Oakland the night before. And many in the crowd chanted Olsen's name and vowed not to forget what happened to him.

"I feel energized tonight and I'm not worried," said Eric Rodriguez, a 52-year-old San Francisco resident who came Wednesday night to support the cause. "If (the police) want to start something, we're just here expressing our First Amendment rights."

He added that the police should stay away, since it is a public square.

"When the government starts fixing things, people's energy may go other places," Rodriguez said. "But we've been three years in this recession and it's not going anywhere."

Some protesters from Oakland also made their way to San Francisco despite the closure of the Embarcadero BART station.

The protest also got some heavy-hitting political support as San Francisco Supervisors David Chiu and John Avalos, Jane Kim, Eric Mar and David Campos, San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi and State Senator Leland Yee came down to the plaza Wednesday night, although the official policy from City Hall was that they were all subject to arrest if they stayed overnight. Yee was in contact with San Francisco police during the early morning hours Thursday and tweeted to his followers that the police were not coming.

"What we saw in Oakland last night is not what we want to happen in San Francisco," said Board president David Chiu, who was one of five supervisors there to support the Occupy movement. "We will do anything we can to avoid a confrontation between the Occupy San Francisco protesters and the San Francisco Police Department."

Supervisor John Avalos said he heard that Oakland Mayor Jean Quan had allowed the Occupy Oakland protesters to retake Frank Ogawa Plaza without a confrontation.

"We see that perhaps the police crackdown that happened in Oakland was for naught, and was not necessary, and hopefully we learned from that lesson here, that if a police crackdown happens in San Francisco that it's not going to be any success, and its intention of moving people from the plaza, they will come back, they'll find a new plaza," Avalos said about 1:30 in the morning.

By 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, however, a raid had appeared eminent as people posted photos of scores of police officers dressed in tactical gear staging outside the police operations building on DeHaro Street. The photos showed the officers boarding SF MUNI buses marked with the police handles BRAVO, TAC, ALPHA AND CHARLIE, outside the police operations building on DeHaro Street. Those busloads of officers never materialized at Justin Herman Plaza.

San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr warned demonstrators in a letter Wednesday that they could face arrest for a variety of city laws against camping, cooking, urinating and littering in public parks if they continued to camp in Justin Herman Plaza. Management companies also sent letters to commercial tenants in the area warning them that they could potentially expect increased police activity on Wednesday.

Police had previously ordered tents removed in the Occupy San Francisco camp in the plaza and also cleared another camp outside the Federal Reserve Bank downtown.